You might know that gold is a noble metal, whose electron shells are completely filled and unlikely to be attracted to other elements. You might know that old contacts provoke less signal noise than other metals, but did you know that contacting tin with gold will corrode the gold over time? Mixing tin contacts with […]
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Gallery: Scenes at the Mentor Graphics Integrated Electrical Solutions Forum
The Mentor IESF recently took place in Plymouth, Mich. and featured a heavy dose of technology built around autonomous vehicle and connected vehicle themes. Here are a few of the more interesting sights we discovered as we perused the technical sessions and the show floor. NEXT PAGE :Two displays, one computing platform
How to accurately measure header/connector pitch
Sometimes when you’re working with a microcontroller unit evaluation board, you need to connect a ribbon cable to the board’s header. If the ribbon cable isn’t specified, how do you know what to order that will fit the header on the MCU board? The pitch of a connector refers to the distance between the pins […]
The IoT and motion control fuels a rising tide of Raspberry PI, BeagleBoard, and Arduino boards
The internet of things has created a big market for inexpensive computer boards, so much so that standard open-source designs now have their own clones. Leland Teschler • Executive Editor If you eyeball crowd-funding sites such as Indiegogo or Kickstarter you will find several projects aimed at creating computer boards in the format of the […]
Fixed point vs Floating point
Various types of processors (DSPs, MCUs, etc.) have the ability to do math using floating point numbers, but what exactly does this mean? In general, floating point math offers a wider range of numbers and more precision than fixed point math. Knowing the difference, and when to use which type of math can make a […]
DEMUX, MUX, and Decoders: How To Expand I/O
The relentless march of technological progress has given engineers increasingly smaller and more energy efficient microcontrollers to use in their designs. These benefits do come with a cost, however. Physically smaller packages have less room for I/O pins meaning fewer peripheral components can interface with the microcontroller itself. Fewer peripherals means less functionality which tends […]
Now available free: Embedded C Coding Standard book
To help the embedded systems industry create safer products, Barr Group has made the downloadable version of its Embedded C Coding Standard available to the public free of charge. This offering comes in response to potentially disturbing results published in the 2017 Embedded Systems Safety & Security Survey. That survey revealed that approximately one in five designers of […]
Top microcontroller threads on EDAboard.com – August
(editor’s note: Intrigued by the problem? Have a similar challenge? Have a question or another solution? Then click the “Read more” link and follow the conversation on EDAboard.com or log in to EDAboard and participate in the microcontroller forums.) PWM using Controller – I working on one project which requires the following condition: Analog voltage and PWM […]
Memory technology from Floating Gates to FRAM
There are two basic types of memory: volatile and non-volatile. Volatile memory loses its content and becomes a blank slate whenever power is completely removed. However, volatile memory doesn’t need much power and can maintain its contents with a small battery. Non-volatile memory retains its contents even if power is completely removed. SRAM and DRAM […]
A look at the computer engineering stack
The embedded world looks a lot like the computing world as technology evolves, so it’s worth taking a look at the full computer engineering stack. This kind of stack refers to the structures built on top of each other that combine to form computers, not the memory register stack that processors use and can sometimes […]
